Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Business update

lord henley: My hon Friend,the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Small Business, Consumers and Corporate Responsibility (Kelly Tolhurst) has today made the following statement:I am writing to inform the House that the Government is pleased to accept all the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations for the new National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates, which will come into force in April 2019.The Low Pay Commission is an internationally renowned independent and expert body which conducts extensive analysis and stakeholder research to make its recommendations.The Low Pay Commission has recommended that:The National Living Wage (for workers aged 25 and over) should increase from £7.83 to £8.21;The rate for 21 to 24-year-olds should increase from £7.38 to £7.70;The rate for 18 to 20-year-olds should increase from £5.90 to £6.15;​The rate for 16 to 17-year-olds should increase from £4.20 to £4.35; andThe apprentice rate (for apprentices aged under 19 or in the first year of their apprenticeship) should increase from £3.70 to £3.90 .The Low Pay Commission has also recommended that the accommodation offset increases from the current rate of £7.00 to £7.55 from 1 April 2019.We welcome the Low Pay Commission’s recommendation of an increase to the National Living Wage rate such that it remains on path to reach 60% of median earnings by 2020 subject to sustained economic growth.The new National Living Wage rate of £8.21 will be the highest ever UK minimum wage and benefit around 2.4 million workers.[1] From April 2019, a full-time minimum wage worker will see their earnings increase by over £2,750 over the course of the year, compared to when the NLW was introduced in in April 2016.The Low Pay Commission’s recommendations for the National Minimum Wage youth rates are well ahead of forecast inflation.These increases are due to come into effect from April 2019, subject to parliamentary approval. The Government intends to lay implementing regulations before Parliament in due course.A copy of the response will be available from the BEIS website at www.beis.gov.uk  [1] Details to be provided in the Low Pay Commission’s upcoming 2018 report


This statement has also been made in the House of Commons: 
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Lord Speaker

Parliamentary privilege

lord fowler: I would like to make a short statement about parliamentary privilege in the light of representations I have received. A robust and healthy democracy such as ours rests upon a number of common and shared features. Two of the most important are the freedom for members of the legislature to speak freely, without repercussion and respect by the legislature for the independence of the courts and the rule of law. As we know, this is not the case everywhere in the world. The relationship between these two should not be one of conflict but one of mutual respect. As parliamentarians we should be keen to respect the proper business of the courts, just as we expect the courts to respect the authority of Parliament. In particular, we should be careful that in exercising our undoubted right to free speech in Parliament we do not set ourselves in conflict with the courts or seek to supplant them.